Marquez

I can't afford to get past the Bloomberg paywall to read the article because I need to save my pennies for PS Plus...

I'd be surprised if such a large increase is driven solely by the subscription increase, especially when there have been multiple reports of astonishing YOY PS5 sales recently as well.

I'm sure it's going to be a game that demands multiple playthroughs anyway, so the trophies requiring this aren't a blocker for me. However I always get turned off by the 'hard difficulty' requirement in a trophy list. Not particularly inclusive.

Preordered and colour me excited. I've just endured the World Athletics Championship being on my TV all evening, every evening for days on end as my partner is a former athlete... would have been perfect to have at the time but illustrates the future use case in my one TV house!

PS I quite like athletics but I had no choice as my PS5 lay idle the entire time...

An immediate 20% increase is going to bite during this cost of living crisis. I’ll definitely be dropping down to Extra.

Day one purchase for me as a single tv gaming dad. We are the target market.

@Godot25 Absolutely, I'm not calling out the sound business practice, I'm calling out the timing - it will put some people off diving in for a look at Starfield, at a cheeky £1 level. Revenue per sub is becoming even more critical given the plateaus described in the article.

@Fiendish-Beaver https://www.ign.com/articles/microsoft-pulls-1-xbox-game-pass-trial-just-days-before-starfield-release-date#

@Fiendish-Beaver Oh it's a sensible move in terms of potential revenue, but the timing isn't great. That's my point - it will put people off who were thinking of using the intro offer to check out what is effectively the biggest test of Microsoft's first party capability yet. IMHO they should have done this a month or more ago when no game of consequence was coming out, to remove the noise.

Microsoft’s removal of the £1/$1 GP intro offer, a few days ahead of Starfield, isn’t exactly going to drive extra subs either.

It's not being tied (yet) to the annual release cadence that should make the upcoming NCAA reboot a great indication of what a gridiron game with longer development time COULD achieve. Fingers crossed.

Going to tackle the Open at St Andrews on EA PGA Tour. Maybe try and pick up FF XVI again but I'm less than halfway through the story and it is starting to drag for me - really hope it gathers pace...

Happy for Xbox mains (S or X) that a GOTY contender is coming to their platforms without further delay, by dropping a relatively niche feature. A minor compromise imho.

My personal choice is going to be to stream Starfield through my Samsung TV for the cost of a month's worth of Game Pass. With that choice I accept a compromise in quality versus even the S, never mind the X. That's the cool thing about Xbox for me as a PS5/Switch player, I don't even own one of their machines and I get to access the latest Bethesda title anyway, for a small fee. And if I enjoy it enough maybe I'll take that partial step-up and buy the bargain S for future exclusives. That's exactly what MS were aiming for as they seek to claw back market share after last gen, and I'm cool with that.

Oh and the outrage and the flaming and the fanboying in the comments so far... seriously, siding with corporations is so weird. It's like listening to those 'my dad is bigger than your dad' arguments from my playground days. Just play whatever the best games out there for you are, and have fun people. Life's too short.

@PixelDragon As a kid who was basically a shut-in due to having a TV in my room as a kid I'm not chancing that with my kids. Not reaching, it's called personal choice.

@PixelDragon More a case of not wanting TVs upstairs - dangerous - and waiting on some development downstairs. So for now, a great solution.

To all the ‘nobody needs this device’ type comments - I need this device. Gamer dad, one tv household, disposable income. Day one purchase.

I created my second character on the seasonal realm after hammering the game at launch on my rogue, but there are so many games to play at the moment my sorceress and the season have been put on hold for now. Will definitely check the new season out though, when it drops. Great game, but a real time sink.

Playing Baldur's Gate 3 character creation over and over in my head until it comes out on PS5. Also dabbling in FF XVI and EA's excellent PGA Tour.

I've played Destiny since the original D1 beta and yes, the game is at a low point right now but it's still got the best feel of any FPS and they've committed to retaining content moving forwards after technical challenges. Also, the idea that Bungie somehow told ND that Factions was ***** and Sony listened... come on. They will have suggested improvements for sure, that will now be worked on - that's called collaboration.

Bungie remain experts in FPS, in live service and in games that are just... cool. That Marathon trailer displayed the ultimate drip. A great Sony purchase is what they are.

I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see what The Final Shape (the conclusion of the latest Destiny story) has in store, they may or may not stick the landing; regardless, their efforts as devs are to be applauded. Wind your necks in Internet.

@ApostateMage This game feels inevitable, doesn't it? Though I wouldn't be surprised if a different internal studio took on the Cassie Drake storyline while ND focus on TLOU3 and something brand new.

@Northern_munkey I'm going to give this a go for the trophy at some point, but it's definitely The Butcher that has me pausing that idea!

Still on hols in beautiful Portugal and, with only my laptop for gaming, Football Manager is the ideal follow-up to the start of the Prem and the first of City's many wins last night.

@NorrinRadd Yeah I think I’ll preorder!

Now the PS5 version has been fixed I’ve started Assassins Creed Syndicate for the first time and I’m loving it. Excellent protagonists and a compact map!

Off to Portugal tomorrow for a holiday so I’ll be dining on the laptop comfort food that is Football Manager and Civ VI for a week.

@Wormwood23 Sounds like a waste of a perfectly good space shuttle.

@naruball I came here to say exactly this! Although as a parent I do understand the OP's frustration with certain games only being suitable for after the kids have gone to bed due to sex, violence, or me swearing at Souls games.

Despite my disappointment in no physical release (don't @ me, I'm old and set in my ways) I've preordered the digital deluxe version for PS5 and cannot wait. This game looks to have the kind of depth that means years of enjoyment through a staggering amount of varying replays. And I have a whole month to watch content and prep for my first run.

@Rob_230 The impact of the Switch successor will be interesting to see. The current Switch is typically owned alongside another platform - PS, Xbox, PC - but with the current cost of living crisis I think more people will be in an either/or situation when the new one arrives.

It'll take a high level of sound quality to pull me away from my OG Arctis 7 headset. Still going strong.

@Rhaoulos Yeah I noticed this for Gotham Knights, down to less than £20 on the PS Store and £17 on Amazon. Still haven't pushed the button on what seems like a better than average game that got panned critically because 1) it wasn't an Arkham quality game and 2) launched with serious performance issues.

Stars points also a consideration these days of course...

Already deleted Jedi: Survivor (after completion!) to make room plus some to spare.

@Rob_230 Me too, it felt like I was getting personally trolled! Still, the Spidey edition does look good.

Winning the US Open this week has given me a boost in PGA Tour, loving it more than ever. Conscious I need to get back to FF XVI, so that's the plan this weekend.

@dschons I'm still on white plates for a similar reason, though I think now I've been shot down on the Spidey ones I'll go for the all black.

@Mattlong78 That's hilarious! It's a shame no plant pot on earth is big enough to hide the chonky PS5!

Bagged myself a controller with no queue or issues. Lost the battle with my partner about the plates due to their 'effect on the overall aesthetic of the living room'.

Like many on this thread, I bought Death's Door (in one of the many sales) and it's been sitting in my backlog. But happy to spend the money on Indies in general so not too upset. Maybe it's inclusion will spur me on to finally play it this month.

A real shame, watched both of my kids play and enjoy the original... and they never agree on anything!

@djlard That’s not how seasons work though, is it…

@djlard I don't understand the issue there - they made some content and they want people to play it. And you can play the season for free.

@Blackjay Gutted for you, I hope you get it back/replaced.

Balancing (pardon the pun, Outraged of the Internet) Diablo IV's new season with Final Fantasy XVI which I love, but in small doses.

@Beerheadgamer82 Blue, black and white here for similar reasons. And soon… a Spidey one!

@Beerheadgamer82 My blue DualSense is the first one I pick up, the colour is awesome.

I can see this being a game I play the first third of, with a different character roll each time, over and over - but never finish.

I daren't read the patch notes in case my rogue's ridiculous Poison Trap/Shadow Imbuement/Barrage/Rain of Arrows build has been hit with the nerf bat. Looking forward to rolling a different class for the new season at least!

Gear imbalance (common in all GaaS, let's be honest) and occasionally confusing PvEvP mechanics aside, Division and Division 2 are both great games with tight gameplay, lovely handcrafted environments and moment to moment action. I really enjoyed them both. I'm expecting big things - cannot wait.

'Morespoken'.

Seriously though, this mini vidoc has me interested.

As a longtime supporter of Special Effect in the UK I hope that part of the partnership mentioned sees them and other disabled gamer charities receive a job lot of these from Sony, free of charge. Price in general seems pretty fair.

Wife and kids are away this weekend, so let the mammoth gaming session commence!

Rotating between Diablo, PGA Tour and FF XVI this weekend with FF taking the longer sessions to accommodate the cutscenes.

He's going to have to sell that lovely hat.